Burial Mound – With Honor [REVIEW]

Burial Mound’s 2012 release, With Honor, is something that stands out of the crowd in the melodic metalcore scene. It is six tracks, about 30 minutes worth of material, and sounds similar to Killswitch Engage. However, this band is more focused on a heavier sound than Killswitch Engage presents, this is done through barely any cleans throughout the entire EP, except for the track “Nothing is Sacred,” which the cleans are done by guest vocalist Diecast. Also, not to forget, this is first album review I have done that the vocals are completely done with inhale screams, instead of the usual exhale screams. If you’re an exhale scream elitist, or just ignorant to inhales, then this album (and band) is probably not for you.

The second track “Blood Bound,” being one of my favorites on this EP is very melodic and well done. It presents a lot of melodic elements with the guitars in the background, keeping the pace of the song fast, except for one guitar solo. This song, in itself, really shows what Burial Mound is about, and what you can expect from the rest of the EP. Blood Bound, and other songs, really remind of Killswitch Engage. “With Honor,” the fourth track, is similar to Blood Bound, but the guitar pace is more upbeat and the whole band is in sync throughout the song. While listening through it, you really cannot help yourself but to bop your head to the beat of the song. The distinct difference in this song, than the others, is that Mike shows more range in his vocals than previous songs, with low and high screams.

To summarize my thoughts on this EP; it is a great EP, and definitely is for fans of melodic metalcore. It is not too heavy, with little to no breakdowns, chugging, no gutturals, squeals, and the like. However, the band presents really solid melodic metalcore, almost similar to old school metalcore, before the guitar chugging, stupidly fast-paced bass pedals, and high pitched (or whiny) clean singing. Overall, this album is well put together, and I look forward to Burial Mound’s next release!